After a thrilling start to the 2020 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) and the legendary Rallye Monte-Carlo last night, it was an action-packed morning’s loop of three stages completed with action and drama aplenty.
Overnight leaders Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT) enjoyed a 19.1s advantage over their rivals, with six-times WRC champions Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota Gazoo Racing) in touch and reigning WRC champs Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT) in third place.
Tänak was first to tackle the stages this morning, facing the snow and black ice head-on. The roads offered constantly changing grip levels to make tyre choice for this three-stage loop critical. Neuville’s overnight lead was cut short by Welshman Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin (Toyota Gazoo Racing) to just 5.4s after the Belgian ace stalled his Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC on a tight hairpin in Stage Three. Evans, confident and cool, claimed the stage victory ahead of masters Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT) with Tänak posting the third fastest time.
Highlighting the sketchy grip, Gus Greensmith/Elliott Edmondson (M-Sport Ford World Rally Team) spun and slid off the road at low speed. His car was unable to return to the road, and the Brit was forced to retire his Ford Fiesta RS WRC.
The WRC2 category offered up yet more action, with class front-runner Mads Ostberg (Citroën C3 R5) suffering a puncture and losing over two minutes to his rivals. Ole Christian Veiby (Hyundai i20 R5) set the speed on the morning’s opening stage, with Stephane Sarrazin second quickest and Eric Camilli (Citroën C3 R5) third. That puts Camilli first, Veiby jumps to second and Sarrazin to third in WRC2.
Stage 3 – Top 5:
01) E. Evans – 13m 22.0s; 02) S. Loeb + 02.1s; 03) O. Tänak + 05.4s; 04) S. Ogier + 08.4s; 05) E. Lappi + 13.6s
Stage Four is one that Hyundai Motorsport would like to forget. Through a high-speed right-left flick, at 180km/h-plus, Tänak’s Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC ran out of road to crash out of the Rallye Monte-Carlo. Stepping from the wreckage, the crew is fortunately OK. The crew was taken to a medical facility for a check-up.
Team-mates Neuville and Loeb set about to cling onto Evans’ pace as he once more set the fastest stage time to set the WRC Service Park alight with excitement. Toyota team-mate Ogier was hot on Evans’ heels after a fast run through the twisting and tricky stage.
The slippery lanes and tight turns are typical Rallye Monte-Carlo: the WRC2 crews didn’t let up in their battle either. M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux struck with a scratch time with the recovering Ostberg charging to post the second fastest WRC2 time, while Veiby posted third.
Stage 4 – Top 5:
01) E. Evans – 11m43.3s; 02) S. Ogier + 03.4s; 03) T. Neuville + 08.8s; 04) S. Loeb + 09.2s; 05) E. Lappi + 12.0s
The Welshman continued his run of fastest stage times in Stage Five with a four-second victory over Ogier with Neuville a further one-and-half seconds adrift. Interestingly, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s 19-year-old signing Kalle Rovanperä sped to fifth fastest on this stage…
The rain began to fall, the roads became yet more muddied and slippery, and the WRC drivers showed their immense commitment in their speed and attacking lines of Stage Five. The final stage of the morning’s loop was a blitz through the French lanes, with every driver putting it all on the line in the quest for a handful number of seconds saved from their overall total.
The fastest man today, Evans, commented at the end of Stage Five: “It’s been good – the feeling has been good in the car and the right tyre choice was made as well so thanks to the team for that. It’s been great so far.”
In somewhat of a declaration of serious intent to team-mate Evans, Ogier summed up his own morning’s performance: “We are almost equal at the moment but there is a long way to go. I am still learning the car and I still need to find the limit.”
Stage 5 – Top 5:
01) E. Evans – 13m 00.7s; 02) S. Ogier + 04.2s; 03) T. Neuville + 05.5s; 04) S. Loeb + 11.5s; 05) K. Rovanperä + 21.2s
Tantalisingly, the top three crews are now covered by less than ten seconds. Will Evans be able to repeat his sterling efforts in the afternoon? Will Ogier find his smooth and alien-like rhythm to leapfrog Evans for the overall lead? Neuville is not to be discounted. His cautious pace in the morning isn’t due to lack of speed: has been learning the lines of his rivals and will surely be the one to watch this afternoon.
Classification After SS5:
01 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) – 01h 04m54.9s
02 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +08.9s
03 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota Yaris WRC) +09.7s
04 Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +48.4s
05 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1m 29.9s
06 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota Yaris WRC) +1m 54.5s
07 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota Yaris WRC) +4m 10.8s
08 Eric Camilli/François-Xavier Buresi (Citroën C3 R5) +4m 42.8s
09 Ole Christian Veiby/Jonas Andersson (Citroën C3 R5) +5m09.9s
10 Nicolas Ciamin/Yannick Roche (Citroën C3 R5) +5m48.7s
